Would you like to see the $5-Bits-of-Broken-Chair-Trophy become official?

Would you like to see the $5-Bits-of-Broken-Chair-Trophy become official?

  • Heck yea, Goldy and Faux Pelini making up a trophy via Twitter is a sign of the times!

    Votes: 92 57.5%

  • Sure, as long as it replaces the Governor's Victory Bell

    Votes: 24 15.0%

  • Of course, we're a better program than Nebraska now and we'll retain the Chair for years to come

    Votes: 9 5.6%

  • Why not! We should have a trophy for every game we play.

    Votes: 1 0.6%

  • Nope, we play for enough Trinkets (Mason's words, not ours) already

    Votes: 34 21.3%
  • Total voters
    160
Donate To GopherHole
I actually voted for we play for enough trinkets the Mason term for these trophy's. If it is unofficial one that is fine, but I don't think the U should recognize it. Why do we need to make this second hand made piece of junk an official trophy. Especially with the Twitter account Faux Pelini as one of the mascots. If the actual mascots or teams want to trade it off though that is fine, but I don't think the schools should acknowledge it. I had a fellow alumn at work ask me if I was excited for the Five dollars bits of chair trophy and I asked him what is that, and that is when I looked up this thread.
To me the chair looks like poorly crafted junk that is what I told him, maybe that is part of it's appeal to others I guess as he seemed to like the trophy and the organic nature in which it was created "lack of corporate sponsorship".
I like that we play Nebraska though seems like the last five games have been good contests.

That and the Victory bell with Penn State needs to be retired and donated to the college football hall of fame.
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
I actually voted for we play for enough trinkets the Mason term for these trophy's. If it is unofficial one that is fine, but I don't think the U should recognize it. Why do we need to make this second hand made piece of junk an official trophy. Especially with the Twitter account Faux Pelini as one of the mascots. If the actual mascots or teams want to trade it off though that is fine, but I don't think the schools should acknowledge it. I had a fellow alumn at work ask me if I was excited for the Five dollars bits of chair trophy and I asked him what is that, and that is when I looked up this thread.
To me the chair looks like poorly crafted junk that is what I told him, maybe that is part of it's appeal to others I guess as he seemed to like the trophy and the organic nature in which it was created "lack of corporate sponsorship".
I like that we play Nebraska though seems like the last five games have been good contests.

That and the Victory bell with Penn State needs to be retired and donated to the college football hall of fame.
Click to expand...
You do realize The Jug was a literal piece of junk right?
 



No No No. Stop inventing rivalries.
 


Yeah the whole point is that it's a poorly crafted piece of junk. I don't really understand the "trying too hard" take on the trophy. The reason it's great is because it's so half-assed, it's not trying too hard because it's not serious at all, it's a joke, it's a mockery of forced rivalries and contrived trophies.

It's obviously still a young trophy, and I thought it was funny and cool last year. I guess we'll have to see if the same enthusiasm is there this week. I'd kind of guess Nebraska fans are too bummed out by the way their season has gone so far to relish in the fun of the broken chair, and that a conference win will be its own reward for them.

If it goes a few years and players on both teams are enthused about it, then maybe make it official, but it doesn't need to be right now. More of a new fun tradition for us, and perhaps somewhat less so for Nebraska. I do worry, with all of the Minnesota/Wisconsin/Iowa/Nebraska games currently having official trophies except for Minnesota-Nebraska, that if the broken chair is tossed by the wayside, it will eventually just be replaced by the Case IH Farmland Throwdown trophy, or something else that constitutes everything the broken chair is mocking, and everyone who thinks the broken chair is stupid will hate the official trophy just as much, if not more.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
This. I kind of like it to be underground and taboo. Much like the government with aliens, the U should refuse to acknowledge its actual existence.
Click to expand...

Perfect. The longer it sits out there in sort of an unofficial level it will grow even more with popular
 

Make a game out of it. It would be fun to see each university deny it's legal status and then have the mascots sneak it into the stadium sometime during the game and have them go grab it after a victory.
 

It made my skin crawl to vote for enough "trinkets" (bet they would have been trophies if the Gophers were actually winning them), but we have enough as is. Playing for four or five trophies in eight conference games is silly. That said, Minnesota-Nebraska is the only game out of the Minnesota/Nebraska/Iowa/Wisconsin round robin that doesn't have an official trophy.
 



There should be a "trinket" trophy for every game in our division! We could play for the "Nerd" trophy with Northwestern, The "slide ruler" with Purdue, and the "Why can't we ever beat you in Champaign in Basketball?" trophy with Illinois.
 

XMan said:
Make a game out of it. It would be fun to see each university deny it's legal status and then have the mascots sneak it into the stadium sometime during the game and have them go grab it after a victory.
Click to expand...

Now we're getting somewhere with this. Even if Nebraska does not embrace it; I'll bet we have a few people here (unregistered I'm looking at you) that could Photoshop it in to pictures. Kind of the "Flat Stanley" for Trophies.
 

Otis said:
There should be a "trinket" trophy for every game in our division! We could play for the "Nerd" trophy with Northwestern, The "slide ruler" with Purdue, and the "Why can't we ever beat you in Champaign in Basketball?" trophy with Illinois.
Click to expand...

We've won two of our last three in hoops in Champaign. The one loss was in 2OT's
 

I see this trophy as mocking contrived college football rivalry trophies rather than being a contrivance itself. While its unofficial status is cool and part of the fun, the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy must become official to have any staying power. If the Gophers can win and keep it, that will go a long way to sustaining the trophy long term. If Nebraska wins in what has been a very frustrating season for the team and its fans, it's unlikely the necessary sense of humor to embrace the trophy will exist and that would likely kill the thing. As for the trophy's origin, I'd much rather have it be something goofy like the Twitter war with the fans having some fun or Michigan forgetting the Little Brown Jug and being told to win it back than the dull nonsense of two sets of governors, ADs, and school presidents inventing a trophy no one will care about in the most corporate and antiseptic manner possible.
 



GopherHomer said:
I say 'yes.' It's origins seem a bit ridiculous - but that's how cool traditions begin. In 50 years, I'd much rather re-tell the story to a youngster how this trophy began through a Twitter exchange (I assume by then this will seem as archaic as a telegraph) between Goldy and a satirical Nebraska-based Twitter account, than just say 'yeah, I think the two PR departments came up with some meaningless award for this game to sell a few more tickets.' The Chair was birthed through some honest, social media based snark on the Husker end and some ol' fashioned bluff calling from our beloved mascot. Live on, Chair - live on!
Click to expand...

Somehow I missed the significance of "The 5 Bits of Broken Chair". Can you or someone else tell the full story and why do so many Gopher fans think it should be a major trophy. How did it get broken? Is there a pic of it somewhere?

Will a Gopher player show it off before the game starts??
 

Rivals had some pics of the Chair.
 

Attachments

  • broken chair 2.jpg
    broken chair 2.jpg
    20.5 KB · Views: 27
  • broken chair.jpg
    broken chair.jpg
    79.4 KB · Views: 28

We should have no other trophies besides the pig, jug and axe. Those are our 3 main rivals, by far, and 2 of the 3 constitute the best trophies in college football (and the third - the axe - is a good story in itself with Wisconsin stealing the original trophy, and also it being the longest running rivalry in college football).

Anything more dilutes the significance of the trophy games. This chair crap is getting annoying.
 

WanderingGopher said:
We should have no other trophies besides the pig, jug and axe. Those are our 3 main rivals, by far, and 2 of the 3 constitute the best trophies in college football (and the third - the axe - is a good story in itself with Wisconsin stealing the original trophy, and also it being the longest running rivalry in college football).

Anything more dilutes the significance of the trophy games. This chair crap is getting annoying.
Click to expand...
The other hunks of scrap iron that Nebraska has had dumped on it since joining the league make a mockery of trophy games. This does not.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 

Step 1: break a real chair over Jordan Westerkamp's head (without helmet)

Step 2: taunt the Huskers with the bits of that broken chair until they come and take it

Step 3: don't ever make it "official," because that'll ruin it.
 



It is clear what to do. Keep it at the mascot level. That will make it more interesting anyways.
 


WanderingGopher said:
We should have no other trophies besides the pig, jug and axe. Those are our 3 main rivals, by far, and 2 of the 3 constitute the best trophies in college football (and the third - the axe - is a good story in itself with Wisconsin stealing the original trophy, and also it being the longest running rivalry in college football).

Anything more dilutes the significance of the trophy games. This chair crap is getting annoying.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. The chair has a pretty fantastic story that I think would still be a good one to tell in 50 years. That being said, I also can't imagine this trophy undermining the significance and history of the Pig, Jug or Axe.
 

I like the chair. I want the chair. If we win I will be looking for who has the chair. WIN THE CHAIR.
 

I guess this piece of junk is popular. Seeing #chairweek and #Mortell4Heisman must mean people like the chair.
 

I must admit when I first heard of it's inception it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed but then again Nebraska is new to this whole "trophy game" thing so it was all Greek to me. Upon reading a bit of history of the storied programs and trophies of the Big10, I quickly realised they're ALL a bit quirky so really the Broken bits of Chair fits quite nicely. I'm sure as someone else already pointed out, that when we finally win, the trophy will gain it's relevance in our fan base.
 

cyberbach said:
I must admit when I first heard of it's inception it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed but then again Nebraska is new to this whole "trophy game" thing so it was all Greek to me. Upon reading a bit of history of the storied programs and trophies of the Big10, I quickly realised they're ALL a bit quirky so really the Broken bits of Chair fits quite nicely. I'm sure as someone else already pointed out, that when we finally win, the trophy will gain it's relevance in our fan base.
Click to expand...

+1 We are spoiled with quality trophies in our culture. If we aren't careful, the B1G could impose a corporate-sponsored sterile mostrosity, which would be Nebraska's third such trophy. I love the chair.
 

WanderingGopher said:
We should have no other trophies besides the pig, jug and axe. Those are our 3 main rivals, by far, and 2 of the 3 constitute the best trophies in college football (and the third - the axe - is a good story in itself with Wisconsin stealing the original trophy, and also it being the longest running rivalry in college football).

Anything more dilutes the significance of the trophy games. This chair crap is getting annoying.
Click to expand...
To be honest, Michigan is only a rival because of the jug. That matchup is no rivalry.
 

The $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy was referenced by Mike Hall last night on BTN Live. He loves it. So if it has now been acknowledged by the BTN Network (which is owned in part by the conference) does that make the trophy "official"? ;)
 

The ESPN College Game Day crew also just referenced the $5 Bits of Broken Chair trophy along with mentions of Goldy Gopher and Faux Pelini. So is that a double stamp seal of official approval? BTN and ESPN?
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom